Premier Skills is an initiative of the Barclays Premier League and the British Council in India that is looking to encourage football coaching in the northeast parts of India.

British Council India Director Alan Gemmel speaks to the media during a recent press meet. (HT Photo)

Premier Skills, an international initiative of the Premier League and the British Council, is aiming to take its coach education programme to India’s northeast, Alan Gemmel, director of British Council India, said at a press meet here on Sunday.

Gemmel was speaking at one of the initiative’s coaching workshops, held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

“We are already working across 16 states in the country. I am excited to be extending our operations to the northeast. We are working closely with DoNER (Ministry for Development of North Eastern Region) and the chief ministers of the northeastern states. We will hold this programme in Guwahati, and we hope to be able to bring coaches from all the eight northeastern states in the city for the same,” Gemmel said.

A total of 60 aspiring coaches attended the workshop, held under the guidance of coach Jeremy Weeks. The Englishman called upon partners of the body to encourage women coaches in India.

“We are trying to create a network of coaches (in India). This week, our youngest coach was of 20 years, and the oldest was 57. There’s been a lot of interest in our programme. We want to develop more female coaches in India. More importantly, we want to develop more female coach educators here,” he said.

“We had six female participants at this course in Delhi. We continue to encourage our partners to send more female coaches. For me, it’s a step-by-step approach,” Weeks added.